10 February 2013

“We’re ALL in our places with bright shiny faces”
Exodus 34:29-35 / 2 Corinthians Luke 9:28-43
Sunday of the Transfiguration
10 February 2013


How do we see God?
That’s the question which our worship, the words of the texts, the hymns and songs, the baptisms we’ve remembered and celebrated, the meal of Communion we’ve shared … that’s the question, for which, all of these have been given to us, to live into, to explore … this Epiphany season, Epiphany meaning God’s showing forth, showing forth in God’s Son, Jesus, born, baptized, sent out to serve and proclaim in God’s name.
In the words of our worship-guiding theme these past weeks, we’ve heard God’s call to Come, See and Hear … in the words and actions of Jesus … and then, Go and Tell, tell others what it is, how it is that God has given us this Epiphany-time, this showing forth, to show and tell us:

• The One whom the Wise Men visit; these visitors from “the rest of the world,” not of the same religion or race or background as Jesus, his family, King Herod … showing us that Jesus is for ALL PEOPLE;
• The One who is baptized; a sign, a symbol, a gift and calling for him and for us, un-sticking us, freeing us from our fear, sending us forth, propelled by love into the world God loves;
• The One who is One Of Us; who goes to a wedding and turns water to wine, showing those then and us now that God Is Abundant in love and blessing, and calls us to live in that abundance of love and share it forth with the world God loves;
• And The One who fulfills Scripture; who lives into the promises God has always made to the world, and most especially, for those who are always on the “short end” – the poor, captive, blind, and oppressed … that God is For Us … and to those of us who are blessed not to be in those states at the particular moment, God is calling us to Go To Them, walking wet in baptismal love and hope, moving out in abundance, to and for these, to show and give them signs of hope, proclaiming God’s Favor and Blessing, and more, GIVING IT TO THEM, in whatever way we are gifted to be able to do.

Now, this week, we end this season of seeing, and hearing, God showing forth in Jesus, with a particular theme and two stories which we hear and read every year on Transfiguration Sunday.
The theme today is seeing God. Moses has spent some time up on the mountain with God, hearing, receiving, The Law, not just the two tablets with the Ten Commandments written on them which he carried down to the Israelites, but ALL God’s words about ALL the ways God’s people were to live from now on.
But there was something different about Moses.
His face – it was shining with a GodBurn. He’d been in God’s presence so long, something had happened to him, he’d been taking in the word of God for such a time, that he was all shiny.
And the people couldn’t take it. It was just too much for them.
So Moses had to put something over his face ... a veil, a covering ... so the people wouldn’t run away in fright. Not because of what they saw, but because of what ... no, WHO they saw, that he had seen.
Now, let’s think about this for a minute.
Moses – got to look at God, and hear God directly.
What a blessing.
Moses came down the mountain, to tell the people what he heard, and learned, from God; so looking at, seeing, hearing, Moses, would be just like looking at God, well, as close as those Israelites could get.
But they had to put something between themselves and that look.
The text says the people were too scared to come near Moses.
Why were they scared?
The text doesn’t say anything about that.
But that’s not important.
Not as important as the outcome of what that extra layer between them and Moses, and thus, between them and God, was all about.
More distance.
More distance between themselves and God.
The Israelites might well have said they wanted to be close to God, but when it came right down to it, they were frightened of that closeness and so they put up more layers of separation between themselves and God.
Paul in his Corinthians reading talks about this.
To Paul, each layer we put between us and God is like hiding from God.
We don’t really want to hear the truth about ourselves, about other people, about the creation, about it all, and so we choose to hide. Paul uses that word “veil” but “mask” would be just the same.
Think of all the masks we put on to put distance between ourselves and God’s truth.
Busy-ness.
“Fun.”
“Oh, that’s so boring.”
“Why would I want to learn anything more about myself, my life, how I could live life differently, explore God’s deep calling for me, find my place in God’s good creation?”
In many ways, it’s like the word we received in last week’s Gospel text, how the people of Nazareth were so glad to have Jesus among them until Jesus pulled their masks off, and told the truth about them ... that they really just wanted to manipulate him – Jesus; to have God but on their own terms, thanks.
Hiding behind the veil, behind the mask, is just another way we try to manipulate God.
Manipulating God.
That’s what’s going on in the Gospel reading.
Yes, it’s the familiar Transfiguration Day story, Jesus taking the three disciples up the hill with him, and he’s changed, transfigured, before them.
And Peter wants to keep it all just so, the way he’s seen it play out before him. He wants to build them each their own personal booth, to keep this mountaintop moment his forever.
But once again God has other plans.
“This is my Son, the Chosen; listen to him!” God’s voice boomed on the mountain and popped Peter’s balloon of what might have been – his nostalgia, his longing for living just in that moment for a time, some time, maybe all time – and down the mountain they all went.
Down ... and into more ambiguity.
The disciples who remained at the bottom of the mountain had screwed up again. A man had brought his son ... from the description here, one suffering from epilepsy, but in those days, they didn’t know what it was so he called it “a spirit” ... this man had brought his son for healing and wholeness, but the disciples couldn’t do anything to fix it.
And Jesus’ answer ... well, it sounds harsh, and cruel, and downright mean.
You faithless and perverse generation!
Surely his words cut them all to the heart.
For the disciples were probably doing the best they could.
The father only wanted the best for his son.
Peter was just doing what he thought was the honorable thing, honoring Jesus, and Moses, and Elijah, building them booths to stay in, up there on the mountain.
They were all doing the best they could ... the best they could, for people who had placed veils, masks, between themselves and God.
Veils, masks, which made them stumble, trip, fall short, mess up, all the time.
And so Jesus did the best he could.
Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father.
Jesus – God unmasked, unveiled, for us, for the sake of the world, right here, right now, he shows us what we need to know about God.
God who doesn’t stay removed, away, in a booth on a high mountaintop, away and apart, from the ambiguity, the messiness, the messed-up-ness of human life, no, he wades right in, wades right in to make it right and good.
Jesus is God unmasked, unveiled, for us, so that we can have life full, abundant, as God wills and wants it for us ... life without masks, excuses, distance between us and God. God who refuses to be manipulated but God who chooses to be with and for us, down here, in the ambiguity and messiness.
And from here ... Jesus keeps going on, to make it right for all the world, all of creation, earth and sea and all the creatures, and us, forever.
Jesus’ next moves after this story lead him to the Cross, and it’s to the Cross that we will now turn, too, as we once again enter Lent. Lent ... a time, a season, when we are especially called to pull off our masks, to set aside our excuses, whatever we place between ourselves and God, to keep from “going deeper,” here, now, in Lent, all that is ripped away, in the Word and Worship and Spiritual Work that is this season when the space between ourselves and God is most thin ... and we can, we must, look upon the God who comes and lives and gives Self on the Cross ... so that we can have our own Selves back ... as God would have us be ... true, honest, open, all in our places ... our God-given and God-placed places in this life ... with our bright shiny faces ... bright and shiny in the love and peace and forgiveness and hope and life given by Jesus ... ready, willing, sent, to Make the Sign of the Cross in our own lives so that others will see Jesus through us.
That’s where we are going, together, with Jesus, this Lent.
Going deeper, going truer, called to take off our masks, put aside our veils, so we will see our God face to face through the Cross, so that we can see ourselves and each other and the world God loves clearly, too.
Amen.